The in-vivo effects of H3-thymidine on the mitosis in oral epithelium of the mouse

Epithelial cell kinetics--A review of methods of study and their application to oral mucosa in health and disease. Part A. Methods for studying cell proliferation and some sources of variation

Despite extensive investigation of cell kinetic parameters in wide range of normal and abnormal tissues and their potential value in understanding the pathogenesis of many disease states, as well as in prognosis and treatment planning, their application to oral epithelia remains limited. In part A the methods most commonly applied to the study of epithelial cell kinetics, i.e., isotope labelling, mitotic arrest and flow cytophotorimetry are reviewed with special emphasis on their technical limitations, sources of variation and inapplicability to humans in vivo. The ability of in vitro methods to reliably reproduce in vivo cell kinetic parameters is also considered. The application of cell kinetic studies to normal and abnormal oral tissues will be discussed in part B.

[Comparative histological and autoradiographic investigations on benign oral leukoplakias (author's transl)]

Proliferation was studied in 18 patients with benign oral leukoplakias of the buccal mucosa by in vitro labelling with 3H-TdR. Identical investigations were performed in clinically normal mucosa of the same patients. Significant differences were found between the LI of both groups. On the other hand the total of labelled cells per 100 micron length of the basal membrane was approximately equal in leukoplakias and normal mucosa. In the majority of cases the LI was increased in leukoplakic regions whereas the number of labelled suprabasal cells was lowered compared to normal. These findings are supposed to be a consequence of shifting of epithelial keratinization to the lower stratum spinosum. From that results an increased proliferation in the basal cell layer.